Tennis Instructor Tried to Net $7.5M in Condos

Game, set and match for a San Francisco tennis instructor who tried to get into the real-estate fraud racket.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Winston Lum, 45, was charged with 16 felony counts including grand theft, identity theft and forgery. Prosecutors called the scam “an act of hubris difficult to imagine.”

Lum, who runs a tennis-instruction business called Slam and Bang Tennis, is being held on $7.5 million bail. There are also two shoplifting cases pending against him for unrelated incidents.

Prosecutors say that in January 2009, Lum allegedly headed to the San Francisco Assessor’s Office and forged the owner’s signature on grant deeds for condominiums worth $7.5 million. The properties are located at One Rincon Hill, a 60-story luxury high-rise overlooking the Bay Bridge in the city’s SoMa (South of Market Street) District.

Lum then borrowed $2.2 million against the properties. The grand-theft charge stems from Lum allegedly trying to sell one of the properties for $1.2 million, according to district attorney spokesman Brian Buckelew.

The owner of the properties, Shirley Hwang, became suspicious when she started getting mail for Lum at her home at One Rincon Hill. When management of the building told her she no longer owned the unit in which she lived, in March 2009, she called police.

“The whole thing is terrible,” said Hwang’s lawyer, Thomas Mayhew. “Their own forgery expert confirmed that the signature on the deed was not hers … but they still won’t release the mortgage” from Lum’s name.

Hwang has sued Lum and his lender, De Witte Mortgage Investors Fund.